Catherine of York
Catherine of York was the sixth daughter of King Edward IV of England and his queen consort Elizabeth Woodville.
Soon after the death of her father and the usurpation of the throne by her uncle Richard III, Catherine was declared illegitimate along with the other children of Edward IV. The princess' mother, fearing for her children's lives, moved them to Westminster Abbey, where the late king's family received sanctuary and spent about a year; later she moved to the royal palace. When Richard III died, and Henry Tudor was on the throne under the name of Henry VII, the act recognizing the children of Edward IV as bastards was canceled. Henry VII married the eldest of Edward IV's daughters, Elizabeth, and Catherine became a valuable diplomatic asset: marriage plans with John, Prince of Asturias and later with James Stewart, Duke of Ross were made for her, but in both cases it did not come to a wedding. In 1495, Catherine was married to William Courtenay, son and heir of the Earl of Devon, an ardent supporter of Henry VII.
In 1502, Catherine's husband was suspected of being involved in the conspiracy of the House of York pretender to the throne, Edmund de la Pole, and was soon arrested, deprived of his property and rights to inherit and transfer his father's titles and possessions to his children. Catherine herself, thanks to the patronage of her sister, remained at large. After the death of Henry VII in April 1509, the new king forgave William Courtenay and returned his confiscated estates to him; Catherine's father-in-law also soon died. In May 1511, William Courtenay was restored in his title of Earl of Devon, but a month later he died of pleurisy.
Left a widow at the age of thirty-one, Catherine took a vow of celibacy. In 1512, she received from the king the right to use for life all the possessions of the late spouse in the county of Devon, in the same year the title of Earl of Devon was transferred to the ten-year-old son of the princess, Henry Courtenay. After the death of her husband, Catherine rarely visited the court: one of the few visits was the christening of the daughter of Henry VIII, Princess Mary in 1516, in which Catherine was the godmother. In Tiverton, Catherine was the head of the most powerful family in the area and the owner of a large estate, so that she could lead a lifestyle consistent with her origin. Catherine died at Tiverton Castle at the age of forty-eight and was buried with great ceremony in the adjacent parish church St. Peter. Of all the grandchildren of Edward IV, Catherine's children became the only ones who inherited claims to the English throne from the House of York.
Life
Birth and early years
The exact date of Catherine's birth is unknown. Documents have been preserved related to the manufacture of a baptismal font for her by Piers Draper; based on them, historians date the birth of the princess on 14 August 1479 or a little earlier. The alleged birthplace is Eltham Palace in Greenwich. Catherine was the sixth daughter and the ninth of ten children of King Edward IV of England and Elizabeth Woodville. The princess' wetnurse was Jane or Joanne, wife of Robert Coulson, who in November 1480, received from the king an annuity payment of £5 per year for her services.Catherine had six sisters, of whom only four reached adulthood—three older and one younger ; Mary, born in 1467, died at the age of 14 from some illness, and Margaret, born in 1472, died in infancy. Catherine also had five brothers: three elder full brothers who were sons of Edward IV, and two elder half-brothers from her mother's first marriage to John Grey of Groby: Thomas and Richard Grey. The youngest of Catherine's full brothers, George, died at the age of about two years, while the other two brothers, Edward V and Richard, disappeared from the Tower in 1483 during the reign of their uncle Richard III.
Childhood
Almost from birth, Catherine was a desirable bride and in the future could become a pawn in the politics of dynastic marriages. Soon after her birth, in August 1479, a proposal was received for Catherine to marry the heir to the Catholic Monarchs—John, Prince of Asturias, who was a year older than the princess. On 28 August 1479, a preliminary marriage agreement was concluded; on 2 March 1482, this agreement was ratified by the Spanish side. However, in April 1483, the princess's father suddenly died, and the negotiations were terminated.Edward IV's death was followed by a political crisis that dramatically changed the position of the former queen and her children. Catherine's older brother, Edward V, who succeeded to the throne, was captured by his uncle Lord Protector Richard, Duke of Gloucester, and Anthony Woodville and Richard Grey who accompanied the young king, were arrested. The king was moved to the Tower of London, where he was later joined by his only full-brother, Richard; together with the rest of the children, among whom was Catherine, the dowager queen took refuge in Westminster Abbey. Two months later, on 22 June 1483, Edward IV's marriage to Elizabeth Woodville was declared illegal; all the children of the late king were declared illegitimate by the act of parliament Titulus Regius and deprived of the right to the throne and all titles. A few days later, Anthony Woodville and Richard Grey were executed. On 6 July 1483, Richard of Gloucester was proclaimed king under the name of Richard III; shortly thereafter there was no news of Catherine's brothers locked up in the Tower.
On Christmas Day 1483, Henry Tudor, whose mother was plotting with Elizabeth Woodville against King Richard III, swore in Rennes Cathedral that he would marry Edward IV's eldest daughter, Elizabeth, or the next Cecily after he takes the English throne. However, the uprising of the Tudor party, led by the Duke of Buckingham, failed even before this oath. After the failure of Buckingham's rebellion, Richard III agreed to negotiate with his brother's widow, Elizabeth Woodville. On 1 March 1484, the king swore publicly that the daughters of his late brother would not be harmed or molested; in addition, Richard III promised that they would not be imprisoned in the Tower or any other prison, that they would be placed "in respectable places of good name and reputation", and later be married to "men of noble birth" and given dowry lands with an annual income of 200 marks each. The princesses moved under the care of their "gracious uncle", who gave them rooms in his palace. Tudor historian Edward Hall writes that Richard III "made all the daughters of his brother solemnly arrive at his palace; as if with him new—familiar and loving entertainment—they were supposed to forget... the trauma inflicted on them and the tyranny that preceded this". According to the generally accepted version, Catherine moved to the royal palace with her sisters, but there is an assumption that Catherine and her younger sister Bridget stayed with their mother after leaving the sanctuary.
Two years later, in August 1485, Richard III died at the Battle of Bosworth and Henry Tudor became the new king by right of conquest under the name of Henry VII. He fulfilled his promise and married Elizabeth of York, and also canceled the Titulus Regius act, which deprived the children of Edward IV of titles and rights to the throne. The act of Titulus Regius was removed from the archives, as were all documents related to it. In 1492 Dowager Queen Elizabeth died; Catherine took part in her funeral ceremony, becoming one of the youngest mourners at the royal funeral. Left an orphan, Catherine finally settled at the court of her sister the queen.
Marriage
Henry VII, once on the throne, began to build grandiose matrimonial plans for his wife's relatives. First of all, he wanted to establish peace with his northern neighbour—the Kingdom of Scotland. In November 1487, a preliminary agreement was concluded on the marriage of Catherine with the second son of King James III, James, Duke of Ross, who was almost three years older than the princess. According to the same agreement, Catherine's sister Cecily was to become the wife of the heir to the Scottish throne, James, Duke of Rothesay, and James III, widowed by that time, was to marry the mother of the princess, Dowager Queen Elizabeth Woodville. But James III was killed in June 1488 before these marriages were made; negotiations were interrupted and never resumed.In October 1495, shortly after her sixteenth birthday, Catherine married the twenty-year-old William Courtenay, son and heir of the Earl of Devon, the leading nobleman and landowner in Devonshire who was an ardent supporter of King Henry VII and whose family had been ardent supporters of the Lancastrian cause during the Wars of the Roses. The House of Courtenay, a French noble family of the County of Gâtinais, also descended from King Edward I of England through his daughter Elizabeth of Rhuddlan. The marriage of Catherine and William was approved by Parliament during the same session as that of Catherine's older sister Anne with Thomas Howard, later 3rd Duke of Norfolk also gained approval. It is known that Queen Elizabeth paid for the wedding clothes for the groom and donated money for the upbringing of the future children of the newlyweds. Being in favour with the king, the Courtenays spent most of their time at court; Catherine as the principal lady, received a salary of £50 per year. Outside the court, Catherine and William preferred to use Tiverton Castle or the ancient Courtenay family home, Colcombe Castle, as a residence; both residences were located in Devon, but Catherine preferred Colcombe. The couple had three children: two sons, Henry and Edward, and a daughter, Margaret.
Downfall
In later years, Catherine was close to her sister the queen. She attended the lavish wedding of her eldest nephew, Arthur, Prince of Wales and Catherine of Aragon in November 1501, and the betrothal of her eldest niece, Margaret, to King James IV of Scotland in January 1502. However, a few months later, disgrace began: William Courtenay was arrested and sent to prison on suspicion of participating in the conspiracy of the Yorkist pretender to the throne, Edmund de la Pole. He spent several years in prison, although there was no evidence of his guilt; probably the sole reason for Courtenay's arrest was his marriage to a princess of the House of York. William was deprived of property and rights to inherit the titles and possessions of his father, as well as the right to transfer them to his children; thus, on the death of the Earl of Devon, his title and possessions were to fall to the crown.Only thanks to the patronage of her sister the queen, Catherine remained at liberty and at court and received a livelihood. Elizabeth of York ordered that Lady Margaret Coton take care of the upbringing and education of Catherine's children, and allocated funds for this. Catherine's children were moved under the protection of Coton to Sir John Hussey's country house at Havering-atte-Bower, which at that time was located on lands that were in the use of the queen or her mother. The content of the children, as well as their other servants, which included two maids, grooms and nannies, was also paid by the queen. She also paid for the needs of Catherine's husband, who was imprisoned in the Tower. In June 1502, the youngest of Catherine's two sons, Edward, died, which was a heavy blow for the princess. Catherine's grief was aggravated by the fact that the child's illness was transient, and his mother, who was with the queen in Notley, did not have time to go to the bedside of her dying son. Since Catherine did not have the funds for the funeral of her son, her sister again paid all the expenses. The queen, on the other hand, allocated funds for a mourning wardrobe for the princess; orders regarding Catherine's wardrobe became one of the last manifestations of the queen's concern for her sister.
In February 1503, Queen Elizabeth of York died. The death of her sister was a great loss for Catherine, since the queen was not only a relative and close friend for her, but also a patroness. Starting from the second day of mourning, Catherine led the mourners at her sister's funeral; on the first day, this post was occupied by the main lady-in-waiting of the late queen, Lady Elizabeth Stafford, since Catherine's wardrobe was not ready. Catherine became the only person to attend all three masses for the late queen.
Left without friends and support from her sister, Catherine turned to her father-in-law for help. The Earl of Devon, a very benevolent person, allocated an annual allowance for his grandchildren—100 marks for Henry and 200 marks for Margaret; however, for Catherine herself, probably, no funds were allocated, since there are no documents confirming the opposite. Probably, the son of the late queen, Henry, Prince of Wales, who by that time had become the heir to the throne, also provided some assistance to the aunt, but there is no documentary evidence of this either.